My Genealogy Hound

HERBERT THRELKELD-EDWARDS, M. D., a practicing physician and surgeon, has acquired an enviable reputation in his profession, and is particularly successful in surgery cases. His office is at No. 314 West Fourth Street, South Bethlehem, and among his patients he numbers many of the best families of the state. His paternal grandmother bore the maiden name of Threlkeld, and as the Doctor is an eldest son, and there were no members of the Threlkeld family to perpetuate the name, the English law bestowed the same upon our subject. Several centuries ago a Norwegian family, our subject’s ancestors, settled in the north of England and became owners and proprietors of the village of Threlkeld, which place is still in existence. The date of their settlement appears to have been about the time of William the Conqueror.

The Doctor’s birth occurred in Esher, Surrey County, England, March 30, 1870, his parents being George Clayton and Jane (Butt) Edwards. The father of the former was a prominent attorney-at-law in London, his office being on King William’s Street. The paternal ancestors were natives of Wales. George C. Edwards was an architect and surveyor, having been educated in London, and in that city he continued to dwell until 1885, when he brought his family to the United States. Going to California, he located in Los Angeles, and there engaged in the real-estate business. His wife was born at Little Hampton, Sussex, where her father, John E. Butt, was an extensive land-holder.

The education of our subject was gained in his native land. In 1885, with his father, he crossed the Atlantic and became a resident of California. Taking up the study of medicine, he entered the University of Southern California, where for a time he pursued the classical course, and later for a year and a-half was in the medical department. In 1890, coming to the Keystone State, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, in the fall of that year, and in 1891 was graduated from the medical department. Subsequently he went to England, continuing his theory and practice work in a London hospital, KiDg’s College and St. Bartholomew’s, thus acquiring a more extended fund of information than he could otherwise have obtained.

Returning, the Doctor completed his work in the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1892 with the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was next elected to serve as Resident Physician at St. Luke’s Hospital, South Bethlehem, his practice being chiefly surgical cases. At the end of nine months he accepted a position as Assistant Demonstrator of Pathology at his Alma Mater, holding the same until the end of the school year, when he resigned. While there he devoted considerable time to the study of nose and throat diseases, in the. treatment of which he is very proficient. In the spring of 1893 he decided to locate in South Bethlehem, which has since been his field of work. For a time his office was at the Wyandotte Hotel, but afterward was removed to West Fourth Street.

The Doctor is Recording Secretary of the A. M. P. O. fraternity of the University of Pennsylvania. In his political affiliations he supports the Republican party. He is a Graduate Fellow of the Stille Medical Society, and has contributed many important articles to different medical journals. In the Northampton Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley and the State Medical Associations he holds membership, and in 1893 was a delegate to the convention of the latter. He is also identified with the University Club of Philadelphia, the Northampton Club of South Bethlehem, and the Beethoven Maennerchor of Bethlehem. In his office there hangs an illuminated coat of arms of the Edwards family on the paternal side, which reads: “The Quartering of the Arms of Rhoderic the Great, King of North and South Wales and Powis Land, direct male ancestor of the Edwards family,” through the Edwardses, of Birmingham, Warwick County, England, the motto being, “Justice to All, Favor to None.”